About the Show

Anna Deavere Smith's groundbreaking one-person show takes a multi-faceted look at the Crown Heights Riots of 1991.

From the show:

There are three sides to every story: yours, mine and the truth. Following the deaths of a Black American boy and a young Orthodox Jewish scholar in the summer of 1991, underlying racial tensions in the nestled community of Crown Heights, Brooklyn erupted into civil outbreak. Fires in the Mirror was Anna Deavere Smith’s groundbreaking response. Birthed from a series of interviews with over fifty members of the Jewish and Black communities, the Drama Desk award-winning work translated their voices verbatim, and in the process revolutionized the genre of documentary theatre. As much provocation as it is exploration, this landmark play launches Anna Deavere Smith’s Residency 1 at Signature.

Signature is excited to work with Anna Deavere Smith to reimagine this play for new performers and collaborators.

Critic Reviews (11)

CRITIC’S PICK "Reflections That Sear in a Reborn ‘Fires in the Mirror’: The Signature Theater revival of Anna Deavere Smith’s drama about the Crown Heights race riots confirms this play’s status as an enduring work of art."
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4/5 Stars "A theatrical time capsule that feels eerily timely...An appropriately fiery revival...While Washington doesn’t possess Smith’s uncanny abilities as a mimic, he imbues each person with specificity, authenticity and soul...A stirring account of an urgent work of art."
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"Fires in the Mirror Exposes Segregated New York City: Anna Deavere Smith's theatrical documentary returns nearly three decades after the original incidents that inspired it."
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"[Washington] is an accomplished mimic…but he digs deeper, finding something of each person's essence, in a coolly appraising look, a conspiratorial smile, or a fierce burst of anger. His is not a showy, distracting display of technique, but a diligent excavation of souls."
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"As evident by the Signature Theatre's current production starring Michael Benjamin Washington, the play offers an ominously accurate reflection of the troubled times in which we now live."
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5/5 Stars "A Hot-Button Show Whose Glow Hasn't Dimmed: Anna Deavere Smith's one-person play still burns bright with star Michael Benjamin Washington and a timely-as-ever theme"
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"While the production is well executed… it presents dialogue as an end in itself and offers no connection between the real disparities affecting the neighborhood's Black and Jewish residents…Still, it is both evocative and compelling, thanks in large part to Michael Benjamin Washington."
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"The piece is well produced, delivering the detailed goods with grace and determination, but not much emotionality. Washington doesn't hold the stage with the transformative weight of Smith, but that's a tall order, as she is at the heart of this emotional undertaking."
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Cast and creative team

Signature Theatre Company